~🇰🇷🇰🇷 안녕🇰🇷🇰🇷~

안녕~~ ^_^ I leave for orientation tomorrow (yay) at Columbia University NYC (double yay) in a plane ( OMB yay). My flight leaves at 10:30 am and I get to JFK at 11:38 am :) I'm flying delta for all of my flights but maybe there will be an improvement this time around.. Anyways tomorrow I'll have to take a shuttle to Columbia univeristy and then I'll get settled and go to the welcome dinner! I'm so excited to talk with these 44 other people that I've gotten to know over the last 3 months! I'm all packed and ready to go! I'm hoping my bags are within the weight limits and that they're the right size ( I tried to like tripe check it XD). We have an all day orientation Wednesday and then thursday morning we leave. I'm super sad because the Korea v Belgium game is on Thursday but I'll be on the plane to Seoul for all of it :( I'm hoping they win! If not I'll cry ㅠㅠ I'll post more after orientation :D ~!

Back to Seoul: What has Juli been up to these last 9 Months~?

Hey everyone! So I'm going to do a quick update for everyone!

I applied and was accepted to the NSLI-Y Korean Summer program and I leave June 27th to Seoul! I come back August 9th. I found out I was a National Hispanic Recognition Scholar potential candidate. I also won the Hamilton Friends Association Award ($500 and trips to Seattle and Guatemala). Junior year is about to end for me. I'm heading to Girls State and then off to Princeton University for a Questbridge College Admissions Conference! Then I have 2 days to repack then off to Orientation in NYC ( Columbia University) Flights and Host Families are still unknown at the moment, I'll know my flights by the end of the month and my host family sometime in mid June! I'm so excited!

I will be studying at Sogang University, last year was Yonsei!

Anyways I'm super busy with school right now so I'll post more info as I get it!

annyeong!

Photos Yay :)

Sorry for the long wait! Here are my photos finally! :)

The link to my Facebook album:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201826993145896.1073741832.1514517327&type=1&l=3d0dfb0a6e

The link to my Photobucket album:

http://s1011.photobucket.com/user/Juliana_Pena/slideshow/Facebook/Seoulmates%203%202013

Photos~

Here is the link to all of my photos~~

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201826993145896.1073741832.1514517327&type=1&l=3d0dfb0a6e

Birthday and school tomorrow~ yay

Friday and Saturday| Juli's Most Embarrassing and Amazing Moments of her Existence on Earth

Friday: 

The beginning of this day was pretty standard. We went to the Samsung delight museum where Samsung displays all of its new technology and some games~~ we had lunch afterwards and then went to Kpop dance class. We learnt the song Bar Bar Bar by Crayon Pop which is really popular in Korea right now ( the level of gangnam style). We learnt the first half of this song and I guess it'd come in handy if you're ever forced to be in a dance competition for a shopping mall. But what are the chances of that happening... Right...?

W

R

O

N

G

! 

That night I went to dongdaemun with my friends Nick and Carly...everything was going fine in the beginning. We bought clothes, did a 4d ride, and was just walking out of the mall when we heard that they were having a dance completion for Bar Bar Bar. We thought it'd be fun to watch considering that we just learned the song.. I did not volunteer to go but the MC saw that I was a foreigner and begged me to go on stage, I just had a YOLO moment and handed my bags to my friends and went on stage. I thought I'd be doing it with other people but no.. I had the solo stage with about 250 people watching me... I knew about half the dance by memory Too XD you know what.. Am I embarrassed? yes! Do I like winning $10 giftcards because I'm a foreigner and I danced it? yes! So I guess it all worked out! I did run off stage laughing afterwards! I went far away and kind of had a mental breakdown at what I just did.. My friend videotaped it too... 아이고... Maybe someday I'll be able to laugh about the video and not cringe... Then again maybe not! 

The next day was very special for 2 reasons! One: We had the closing ceremony today! And Two: the B.A.P concert was tonight! 

I'll start with the ceremony because the concert part is a longgggggg conversation! 

The ceremony was on a cruise ship that went around the Han River~ it lasted about 2 hours and we all got our certificates and also the pottery we painted the first day of our excursion! During the ceremony they showed our video compilation from the trip and we all laughed! I have a copy on DVD and I can't wait to watch it again and again whenever I miss my Seoul❤ 

After we got back from the ceremony it was our free time! Our convert started at 6pm ( I know early but it didn't feel like it!) I got ready and them headed down to the lobby with my friend Carly to find 3 other people who were going~ 2 people had to exchange some money so we went to Myeongdong to go to the currency exchange place~! Then we spent about an hour on the subway to the Olympic Park Stadium exit. When we got off you could tell there was a B.A.P concert going on.. So many fan girls and stands selling Merch ( unofficial but still good!) I bought a cheap light stick so I had something to catch the attention of the group and also a weapon against crazy fans who want to push through everyone to the front.. We followed the crowd about a 1/4 mile to the concert hall where we picked up our tickets and stood in our respective line ( concerts are so organized!) within 5 minutes our line was taken inside and into our pit. Yes pit.. I mean it looked like a pit. There was the main stage up front and then a walkway in the middle to a smaller stage. We were in the pit that was in front of that smaller stage. There was no assigned seating rules.. I mean fans just packed to the front and kept pulsing to the front. When the concert started that's when things got good.. I mean they're not B(est) A(bsolute) P(erfecf) for no reason! This was my first concert but man was it amazing! When the members came to the smaller stage I was only 1 yard away from them and when they look at you directly...man that feeling was amazing! I'm a foreigner so I stood out :D I got 10 uninterrupted seconds of Himchan eye contact time when he had a break right in front of me ❤❤❤❤ B.A.P 짱~~ the concert lasted about 2 hours and I didn't know I could stand for 3 plus hours without a break..I guess that's Kpop power for you! The concert title was " WANTED: Live on Earth" and this concert was the rehearsal for their final concert the next day- which was the day we left Korea! It was funny and it was just amazing to see Koop idols live.. Like not 3 inches tall on my screen but 5ft 5in + in person... Yay~~ 

After the concert we followed a line outside where they were selling official b.a.p merchandise! The line after we got there got crazy! I'm glad we got there quickly! I bought a B.A.P concert t-shirt and also a signed copy of their newest mini album "Badman". My album was signed by Himchan (who I got eye contact with and also my bias) and the photocard I got was Jongup :) 

We rode the subway back~ ate at Paris Baguette~ and then headed back to our rooms for our final night in Seoul~ 

***quick section about the flight***

Not much happened the next morning~ we just went on the bus to the airport, checked in, and boarded 30 mins after security! The flight was 14 hours long but I slept for about 10 of it~! I then had another flight 3 hours after we got through security again to Boston and then I was back home before I knew it~ 

I miss you Seoul 

L.O.V.E ❤ 박주리

Wednesday and Thursday!

**Almost done! 2 more posts for this trip!**

Korea in August is hot.. And humid.. And it makes you slowly go insane.. How people can wear long pants when it's 102 degrees and humid is beyond me.. 

To relieve ourselves of the heat we went to Hwansun Cave! A godsent place if you ask me! This under ground cave was a cooling 40 degrees! We spent about an hour walking through the cave, nearly bumping our heads, and slipping on the rock. It was nice~! A natural air conditioner! 

After this we spent about 2 hours in the car to go eat lunch at a seafood restaurant. Now, I'm not a fan of seafood so I didn't touch anything but it looked really fresh! It was also really spicy because it was a hotspot with about 3 tablespoons of chili paste... Wow~ (finish the phrase :D ) 

After this we headed to a world renowned archery school and I got to watch the masters shoot and also my friends attempt to shoot ( someone actually shot the ceiling by mistake XD ) 

After this~ again we went in the car for an hour and headed to the beach~ Hajodae Beach~ some students went on the banana boat but I've been there and done that and I didn't want to do it again so I took a nap on a big raised table~ after that we bought ice cream ( I swear all of my money went towards snacks and ice cream...)  our dinner was tofu hotpot (yum~~) it was spicy though so I only had a few pieces. 

We went to our hotel afterwards~ no sauna room but there was a store where I bought some ice cream~ 

Okay so Thursday~ this was the last day of our Gangwon province excursion~! We went to the Unification Observatory (not the DMZ well known to the world) and got the see the mountains and coastline connecting north and South Korea. This isn't the DMZ that people see on TV where there are guards from both countries guarding the 38th parallel but it was a part of the DMZ non-the-less! We went back to our bus where, along the way, I bought a chicken skewer ( I ordered in Korean too~ so proud of myself ^__^). I also got a photo with a military vehicle! After this we had lunch and took a nap afterwards for our transfer back to Seoul ( 3.5 hours?) and then we had bibimbap for dinner (rice with veggies and meat (you mix it together)). We then checked back into our original hotel and our curfew was 11pm that night~ so my friend Nick and I went to Dongdaemun to go shopping and also watch a singing competition by the riverside :) 

It's always fun being a foreigner in Seoul~ you get so many privileges and get invited to do so many fun(ny?) things ^__^ I'll leave that as the prelude to my next post where I get to relive my most embarrassing and amazing moments from the final 2 days~~~ 

Tuesday :) Ridge of Wind and 365 Safety Experience Zone

** I know I'm behind like 2 weeks but life has been hectic Xd**

We started today by going to the Ridge of Wind. It's sort of like a mountain ridge where they built over a dozen wind turbines. Here they also grow cabbage, that were literally the 3x the size of my head! It was crazy! We got here by taking a bus and then walking up hill for a few minutes. I didn't go all of the way to the top but I took a lot of pictures about halfway up! After we finished up here we went to see a place called the 365 safety experience center after lunch. This place was made for kids and preteens as you could tell by the bright paint colors, but some of the stuff was made for adults. Our group first went to the earthquake simulator which was sort of like an indoor roller coaster simulator. We had 3d glasses and everything. It was short but sweet. It kind of hurt to be jostled about so much! After this we went to the Terrorist simulator ( I know it sounds weird but let me explain). That's the name of it but I didn't get a terrorist feeling from it. What happened was that we went in groups of 4 down through an elevator and were seated in this 360 degree car. It then proceeded through rooms with huge screens where the terrorists would pop out and go through this story line.. I think it was futuristic bio warfare. I guess we all died in the end maybe? I wasn't paying attention because I thought people would be like poppin out of places but nothing happened XD 

This is where things got fun~! Our final activity of the day was a military obstacle course! This course was nestled high into a neighboring mountain so we got to take a gondola up. Here we got fitted into safety harnesses and helmets and then we walked over to the course. It was suspended about 3 stories and you were attached to a rope system on only one side, and everything rocked and swung so pretty much if you fell you'd be hanging awkwardly with no net underneath you.. Everything was fine besides the sideways rope bridge Xd! We then got to propell zip line down to the group and then got to do a decently sized zip line across a lake ( Costa Rica spoiled me with ziplines, sorry Korea!). After this we had dinner and then checked into our hotel! In this hotel there was a sauna room called a jimjibang. Here you get an outfit and then there are steam rooms, pools of hot/cold water, and then another level filled with hot and cold rooms. People in Korea freuqent these types of places and sometimes people even sleep overnight! (I mean for $6 it's not bad..) we ended the night with a minor spider scare in our room (eww) and air conditioning! 

Photos will be up later~! I'm too lazy to separate them by day but they are in order :)

Culture corner: 

What can I write about for this culture corner... Hmmm since I already said things about the sauna I think that's covered! 

Music: 

EXO's Growl

G-Dragon's Coup d'etat 

Dramas I'm watching: 

Master's Sun (omg it's scary but soooooo good) 

Goddess of Fire (I'm a sucker for historical dramas)